Travels with my Bike

Hello Croatia, are you surprised to see us?

The beauty of travelling with only an end point, a vague plan and plenty of time up your sleeve is spontaneity.

The EV6 splits here at Mohács. You can take the ferry back across the river, and head into Serbia, where the route hugs the river all the way around to Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city. Or, you can take temporary leave of the Duna and head south to Udvar, cross into Croatia and go on to Osijek, Croatia’s fourth-largest city, then travel back to the Duna, passing through Vukova on the way to Ilok, where you cross the river to Serbia and join the Serbian arm of the route into Novi Sad.

We have dithered a lot about which route to take. Until last night, we had planned to go the Serbian route. But we changed our minds, because we can. To Croatia we will go!

There is a tiny, irrational part of me that is a little scared of Serbia. …

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Eastern Europe is in the grip of a heatwave. We are hot and tired. We call a rest day in Mohács and spend our time trying to stay cool, with a swim at the local pool, a play on a water slide and an evening cruise along the Duna.

Hello air conditioning!

The Hungarian love affair with egg continues at breakfast, with the choice only being, “Which omelette do you want?” Nothing else on the menu. I choose an omelette with plenty of tomato to drown out the egg taste. When cycling, you just cannot skip breakfast.

We leave Hajós and take the road to Baja, rather than retracing our steps back to EV6. We will pick the route back up in Baja. We travel a lovely undulating road, through farmlands and vineyards. A few kilometres from the outskirts of Baja we are hot and hoping for respite, when we happen upon a winery at the side of the road. It looks like what we would recognise as a cellar door, so we pull in to see what we can see. …

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Hunting down fine wine

Back in Australia, Neil and I own a small block in central Victoria where we grow grapes and make small amounts of wine. It’s a hobby, as is the drinking of our own and other people’s wine. When we travel we like to visit wine regions, so it is with delight that we read about a detour from EV6 that will take us to Hajós, a wine village. Immediately we both have visions of rolling into a village with wine cellars and restaurants and tastings and all the trappings of the wine tourist industry as we know it.

The EV6 guidebook tempts: “This excursion is an absolute must for anyone who enjoys fine wine. Just about everything about the unique village of Hajós is dedicated to making, selling and enjoying wine. Plan a short stay in Hajós Pincék, where there are certain to be several wine cellars waiting to serve you their best.”

We set out into the gathering heat with anticipation …

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Bumping along a Duna dike

This morning as we eat breakfast and pack we meet a German couple who are also cycling in the same direction. As happens, we run into them several times during the day, and each time speak and learn more about them.

They head off before us. It always seems to take us an inordinate amount of time to stuff our few things into the panniers and get ready. We finally leave town, crossing a bridge and following the river quite closely for around 15km. The bike route then veers away from the river and we have a choice: …

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Doing the Duna

We don’t leave Budapest until around 1pm today. We are only travelling about 45km to Ráckeve but given that it has been so hot since we left the mountains in Slovakia, it is not a really wise move, as we are leaving at peak heat.

I’ve read accounts of how hair-raising it is to ride in Budapest. …

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Eyes on a shiny prize

We wake up today, ready to roll into Budapest. From now until the end of this trip we will be riding along EuroVelo (EV) 6 which follows the Danube River. Our hotel is a little bustling hive of cyclist activity, with several riders preparing to head off, including a couple from the UK who are riding all the way to the Black Sea on a tandem!

We take advantage of the hotel facilities – including a handy pressure cleaner –  to clean our filthy bikes so they will be sparkling for the trip to the big city and while they dry we take another walk around Esztergom. We visit the Basilica and take in the views over the Danube, which will be our constant companion for the remainder of the trip. …

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Goodbye Low Tatras and hello Hungary

Our time in the mountains is over! Today we cruise downhill. That is what we think as we mount up and leave beautiful Banská Štivnica behind and head for Hungary. …

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Feck Arse Bollox

The great thing about having to huff and puff up a hill in the evening, is that there is usually a downhill to look forward to at the start of the day.

We awake with a feeling of lightness. Yesterday was something that we had dreaded a little and having it over feels like – ridiculous I know – a holiday! We eat a leisurely (and fairly scant) breakfast at our guest house and take some time to stroll around and enjoy our surroundings. The centrepiece of the town is the white church and spire and there is a stairway (dubbed the stairway to heaven, by us) that leads from the level of our guest house up to the church which of course, in the best European fashion, sits atop a hill. The stairway is covered and we make our way up, just as the first of the tourist buses start to arrive. …

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